I totally missed Mother’s Day in the UK this year so I’ll be celebrating my mum in a couple of weeks when it’s Mother’s Day in Mauritius and France. In the run-up to this special day my emails and social media news feeds are filling up with gift suggestions and offers.… Read more
I don’t normally write blog posts for dads; I write them for mums, I write them for kids, I write them for my family, but never for dads. But this is such an important one and I think it’s time for all dads to understand why it benefits them when us mums have Me Time.… Read more
Dear Mrs Morrison (my GCSE History teacher),
I don’t know if you remember me, Sophie, but I just wanted to write you this little letter of recognition and of appreciation.
In September it will be 27 years since I first walked into your History class at secondary school. I was 13 years old and I didn’t think I liked History as I’d spent the first two years at secondary school being bored by it.… Read more
I first moved abroad when I was 20 years old. I was doing a degree in French and Spanish, and part of my third year involved me spending 5 months in France and 5 months in Spain. I vividly remember a very emotional farewell at the airport, as two of my uni friends and I headed off on this new adventure.… Read more
I hadn’t realised that gender disappointment or gender preferences existed until I announced I was pregnant with Léna, our eldest. Almost immediately people asked me whether we wanted a boy or a girl. This question about our unborn baby’s gender really shocked me. We don’t live in a country, age or society where one gender is more important than the other, so why the big deal?… Read more
One of the biggest reasons that people get stuck in the decision-making process is due to the crippling fear of making the wrong decision. If this is the case for you, let me tell you one of my decision-making stories…
10 years ago, I was 30 years old. I had just moved into my forever home – a house we’d had built, and that I’d seen transform from architect’s plans and an empty field into the home of my dreams: 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, huge fireplace, a kitchen we’d designed down to the last cm, a lovely garden with a mountain view, a swimming pool in the garden.… Read more
It seems that, just recently, all I hear around me is fear. For me it started with Charlie Hebdo (especially due to our close links to France), with another wave in Paris in November, and was reinforced again with the terrorist attacks in Brussels last week.
This was a fear on a large scale.… Read more
How to make new friends can be a tough one. Feeling lonely is a horrible sensation and one that can get the most upbeat of people down. I speak from experience, having moved to a new town 8 times in my life, and to a new country 3 times. I have lost count of the number of times that I have had to make new friends.… Read more
To Léna – my 9 year old daughter,
When you were born, back in December 2006, I was very aware that you were only on loan to us for 18 years, when – if we’d done our job properly – you would take off on your own wings to lead your own independent life.… Read more
If I should die now might give the impression that this blog post is going to be pretty morbid, but it’s not going to be about death, but rather about life.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently. Maybe it’s something to do with turning 40 recently that’s making me take a step back and look at life in general, and my life in particular.… Read more